Press Clippings for the week ending
Saturday, 21 June 2003

A random selection of cuttings
from newspapers and magazines

Watts Phillips's drama, The Huguenot Captain, Royal Princess's Theatre, Oxford Street, London, 2 July 1866

George Vining (1824-1875), English actor manager

(photos: Southwell Brothers, London, probably 1863/64)

'We have accustomed ourselves to look for sensation pieces from the manager of the Princess's Theatre. The success which attended [It's] Never too Late to Mend [by Charles Reade, 4 October 1865], Arrah-na-Pogue [by Dion Boucicault, 22 March 1865], and the Streets of London [by Dion Boucicault, 5 August 1864] has secured for this house a prestige for melodrama; and when Mr. [Charles] Kean returned the other day to the scene of his past triumphs, he must have been struck with the change of taste observable in his audience. Now that the Adelphi has deserted the plays associated with the names of Stuart the Tortured, and O'Smith the Terrible, for Sardou, Offenbach, and Burnand, melodrama seems to have taken furnished (very well furnished) apartments in Oxford-street 'On Monday night [2 July 1866] Mr. [George] Vining, true to his policy, produced one of those sensation pieces which has made the scene-painter at the Princess's so important a personage in that establishment. The scenery of the Huguenot Captain is superb. Not only are the "set pieces" admirable, but even the "carpenter" scenes are painted with extraordinary care and effect. The dresses, too, are magnificent, and a well executed ballet introduced in the second act (supported by the eminent dancers, Flageolet, Clodoche, Comète, and Normandie, of the Châtelet [in Paris]) is also deserving of much commendation. 'We have mentioned the accessories before alluding to the piece, because we believe that to its accessories will Mr. Watts Phillips' drama owe most of its success. We have no fault to find with the first act; it was excellent. The action was exciting at the dialogue fair. A duel, introduced in the first scene, was admirably fought, and, being novel in character (each of the combatants being armed with a long and a short sword), was received with unbounded enthusiasm. The situation, too, at the end of the first act was wonderfully imagined, and really deserved the applause with which it was greeted; but we feel that from this point we must moderate the expression of our praise, simply because form this point the drama flags in interest. 'The first act was so excellent that the second appeared dull by the side of it. As we have said above, the dances introduced into it were good – would be could say the same of the songs allotted to Mr. [George] Honey. The actor we have just mentioned was decadently intelligent; he could scarcely have acted or sang in better style; but – yes, here we are obliged to introduce the disagreeable but – there was a little too much of him. Whenever the audience was most excited in the story, they had to repress their curiosity to listen to a song in praise of wine. Everybody (who was allowed to sing) lifted up his or her voice in praise of wine. When, in the last act, Gabrielle touched the spring in the wall, which was to open the way of escape from the vengeance of her terrible aunt, and discovered the Duchess (the terrible aunt in question) standing in the doorway, we half expected that one or other, or perhaps all of the interesting trio, would have struck up a bacchanalian ditty. We write this not to throw ridicule upon the actors, but merely to point out that we consider a very grave mistake in the piece – a mistake, too, which can easily be remedied. We are sorry to have to call attention to this matter, as Mr. Honey sings his songs (especially one with a confused refrain) most admirably. We wish Mr. Watts Phillips would follow an example set by Mr. [Dion] Boucicault], and re-write his last act. Unquestionably, if anything can endanger the success of the Huguenot Captain, it would be its very impotent conclusion. Mr. [J.G.] Shore is a capital actor, and fought the duel remarkably well with Mr. Vining in the first act; but when the audience had made up their minds that he was comfortably killed and buried, they were unprepared (although he was attired in a very gorgeous dressing-gown), to welcome him safe and sound in the last scene. The audience wished to see the gallant captain through his troubles, but not at the sacrifice of their sense of justice and the probable – we might almost say, possible. 'We can speak in praise of the acting; Mrs. Stirling was excellent as the noble-minded and much-wronged duchess; still it pleases us better to see this lady filling such parts as Peg Woffington [in the play of that name by Charles Reade] or Mrs. Candour [in Sheridan's The School for Scandal]. Mr. Vining looked well, fought well, and acted well as the Huguenot Captain. Miss [Adelaide] Neilson was very nervous as Gabrielle; she is evidently a novice, but a novice of no small promise. Mr. Shore was a trifle too affected as the Duke, and Mr. Spencer a little too uneasy as one of the attendant nobles. Mr. Catheart was rather an amusing Sentinel, and Miss Augusta Thompson was a very charming Gipsy. Mr. Honey's Serjeant we have already notices in favourable terms. 'The piece was a complete success.' (The Glowworm, Wednesday evening, 4 July 1866, p.2d) * * * * * * * * L'Amour, a ballet, Alhambra, Leicester Square, London, 11 June 1906

A scene from L'Amour, a ballet,
produced at the Alhambra, Leicester Square, London, 11 June 1906

(photo: Campbell-Grey, London, 1906 )

'Leaving out the French plays [at the Shaftesbury, Terry's and the Waldorf], it is curious that so much of our best acting is to be seen not in the theatres merely, but where one would ordinarily least expect to find it – in the music-hall. At both the Alhambra and the Empire [Leicester Square] there is to be seen acting of a really high standard, and that all the more difficult to perform since it is pantomimic, and only the use of gestures and not of words is allowed. In the new ballet, L'Amour, recently produced at the Alhambra, there is far more artistic pleasure than in the musical comedy of to-day. There is first and foremost the enunciation of the dignified beauty of the human figure. There is symbolism, too, in this Eastern picture. There is much more drama and a stronger story, more human and told more directly, in L'Amour than in many of the plays that have been presented during the last few months in our theatres. Finally there is music – not aimless, desultory melodious sounds, but the passionate crescendos for the love passages, the sad, grave themes for the moments of pathos. This is art. This is æsthetic pleasure.' (The Lady's Realm, London, August 1906, pp.438 and 440) * * * * * * * * New songs for Dora Lyric and Madeline Rees, London, 1908

Dora Lyric and Madelaine Rees

(photos: left, unknown; right, Foulsham & Banfield, London, both circa 1908)

'When Miss Madeline Rees opens at the Tivoli [music hall, London] she will make a special production of Mellor, Lawrance, and Gifford's idyllic number "Parasol for two," with which she was so extremely successful throughout the run of her pantomime engagement at the Court Theatre, Liverpool. Miss Rees' rendering of this delightful song is one of the very best things she has ever done on the variety stage, and the Monte Carlo Publishing Co. are to be congratulated on having so delightful an exponent of so delightful a song. ''"Kiss me, Georgie, Do," the song which Miss Dora Lyric produced with great success last week at the Crouch End Hippodrome [in north London], and is specially featuring at the Regent, Salford, this week, has been secured for publication by the Von Tilzer Music Co.' (The Era, London, Saturday, 11 April 1908, p.23d) * * * * * * * *

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© John Culme, 2003